by Mara Webb
The journey to Skerry was short and it didn’t seem as though Miller was planning to find a dock. He steered the boat around the collapsed wall between the two islands and brought it to a stop a few feet from the beach where three men were loading gunpowder into a cannon.
He pulled a lever, and I felt the boat sway as an anchor beneath us hit the seabed. Miller put one hand on the side of the boat and jumped out into the water while shouting for the men to stop what they were doing. I knew I should get out of the water too, but I was contemplating how many times I’d been soaked to the bone over the last few days. I just wanted to be clean and dry, was that so much to ask?
I let out a sigh of complaint, then jumped into the shallows and followed behind Miller. The men standing around the cannon didn’t seem thrilled to see us.
“I don’t see you over there telling Old Toothless Pete to put his cannon away!” one of the men shouted.
“I have asked him to stop several times. Now I’m telling you the same thing,” Miller explained. The three men stared at me for a moment and then looked back at Miller.
“Where’s Greta?” they asked.
“She died,” I answered. “Killed, actually. My name is Sadie and I’m—”
“The peacekeeper…” one of them interrupted. “She came back…” The three of them turned inward to form a small huddle and whispered among themselves. I still wasn’t used to the idea that everyone in Hallow Haven had an awareness of me before I had even moved here. My parents had sent me away when I was a baby, but for some reason that was common knowledge.
I still had so many unanswered questions about my family. The thought of finding out the truth was scary, maybe that’s why I was putting it off. The men broke their huddle and stood shoulder to shoulder in a line facing us.
“We will stop firing… for now,” the tallest one agreed. They had stood in height order for some reason, tallest to shortest. The shortest guy had to be five feet tall on a good day.
“Can you tell me why you destroyed the wall?” I asked.
“Why we…?” the tallest one gasped. “We destroyed the… excuse me?”
“Pete said that you guys had damaged this wall and that you were planning an invasion,” I said. “Don’t shoot the messenger!” I laughed, holding up my hands as if I was surrendering. Miller reached across me and pushed my arms back down to my sides, shaking his head. At least I thought I was funny.
“That pirate man, he lies to you!” the short man shouted. “We did not destroy the wall! It was them, the Green Holt thugs that plague these waters! How dare he accuse us of doing such a thing.”
“That’s the reason he is firing his cannon at you. Was he the first to shoot?” I asked.
“Yes! He is a violent man, Sadie. A violent man with all of his teeth,” the short man shouted. “To call yourself toothless Pete… he is a liar and a fraud!”
“I don’t know enough about his dental situation to comment,” I smiled, “but let’s just take a minute to calm down and step away from the fuse.”
The short guy was flicking a lighter against his thigh, like a biker from an old movie that was about to smoke a cigar. He didn’t have the same swagger as those movie stars though, he was just awkwardly slapping it against his leg, and it wasn’t doing anything.
“Are you saying that you didn’t destroy this wall?” Miller asked.
“Yes! This wall was the only thing that prevented us from having to watch Toothless Pete sunbathing with his shirt off, why would we want it gone?” the tall one shouted.
“We heard that Green Holt is having all sorts of trouble,” the middle one sneered. “I think that someone knocked this wall over to distract from their troublesome past. Body in a bunker, that’s what our sister told me.”
“Yeah, body in a bunker with snakes for hair and a giant pot of gold and—” the tall one began, but I cut him off.
“I don’t know what it is about myths and legends that you are all so addicted to, but I am trying to deal with facts only. Please,” I begged. I rubbed my eyes and took a deep breath. “The wall was destroyed before we found the body… I think. How did your sister hear about what was happening?”
“You’d be as well asking her. I don’t know,” the middle one groaned. “Can you at least tell us how many snakes the guy had on his head?”
“No snakes!” I barked. “There were no snakes, zero, nada. His name was Robert Barton, not medusa. Where do you even get these ideas from?”
“Wait… Robert Barton?” the tall one repeated. “Is that what you said?”
“Yes. Did you know him?” Miller asked.
“Not exactly, but we know of him. They say…” he paused. “Look I know you hate myths and legends, but they say he was taken back by the island. One day he was walking around on Green Holt then he was gone.”
“That’s what they say happened to our aunt,” the middle one said. “She lived on Skerry all her life, she knew the dangerous places to avoid, she knew how to be safe. One day she just disappeared.”
“When did that happen?” I asked.
“A week or so after Robert Barton went missing, apparently,” the tall one replied. “It’s hard to get news from the other side of the wall. We would only ever hear about it from the mailman. His name is Jeff, have you met him?”
12
“Well, we have had a very productive time,” Effie smiled. “I have my computer with me so if you all have a free hour or two later, I can show you the pictures I took.”
“That sounds dreadful, count me out,” Fitz laughed.
We were sitting in the dining room at Honey’s guest house, and I had my eyes locked on the hole in the lawn. Miller said that the police had finally made it over to Green Holt and removed the body of Robert Barton, but I felt as if the whole place was still tainted somehow.
I hadn’t seen any ghosts on the island, as far as I knew, and it felt strange. Obviously, a normal person goes their whole life without bumping into a poltergeist, but it was just a normal occurrence for me now. Where was Greta’s ghost? My deceased cousin normally tagged along on our island-hopping adventures, but I hadn’t seen her on Green Holt once.
How long do ghosts normally hang around after death? Had Robert been dead too long to have a ghost? In films you have people chatting to ghosts from Victorian England, or whatever. I should probably stop getting my paranormal education from Hollywood.
“Sadie? Would you want to see the pictures?” Effie asked. Kate was sitting beside her sister and making wide eyes at me, I got the impression she was trying to communicate the phrase ‘save yourself’.
“We need to speak to Jeff,” Miller said.
“I thought he was all beaten up and sad,” Fitz chimed in.
“I spoke to Brielle and she thinks he is available to answer questions. He actually said he wanted to come over to Green Holt, so she is escorting him,” Miller smiled. He was trying to appease Kate and Effie who had visibly tensed when he said their cousin’s name.
“Oh great…” Kate said, rolling her eyes.
“Guys, Jeff seems to be the key player in this whole mess at the moment,” I said. “For the sake of getting to the bottom of this mystery, can we all just agree not to drag family drama into it? I need answers before my head explodes.”
“Yes boss!” Kate and Effie said in unison, mockingly saluting in my direction before high fiving each other. I looked down at the ring on my finger, the lime green stone that had glowed when Miller had touched me. It was something special, but what was it for? Why had it appeared to absorb my magic?
“Did the police find anything else with the body?” Kate asked.
“Well, we spotted the passport already,” Miller replied. “He had a wrapper from a bag of chips that was folded into a heart shape and…” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small note pad. I had seen him writing something down during a phone call earlier, this must have been it. “Yeah, heart shaped trash, wide jewelry box and tickets to Australia.”
<
br /> “Wide jewelry box?” Effie hummed. “Do you mean something that you would put a bracelet it?”
“I didn’t see it,” Miller shrugged.
“Call up and get the measurements, Miller!” Fitz yelled. “We need answers!”
“Your wish is my command,” Miller sassed, dramatically dropping into a curtsey in front of the cat and pulling out his cell phone.
“What’s happening to the bunker?” I asked. Honey stared out at the mount of earth that had been excavated by the treasure hunters that had discovered it.
“I’m not sure,” she sighed. “I don’t know how big it is exactly, but I don’t even know how I would go about digging it up. It’s totally buried, and I don’t have the money to pay for some big equipment to be flown in. I think I’ll just have Tony cover up the hatch with the soil again and put down some grass seed.”
“Okay,” Miller said, walking back towards us. “The box was about the size of a ring box. The little velvet thing inside was the wide bit, as if it would fit two rings in it.”
“Wedding rings!” Fitz gasped. “Oh, well if solving this crime doesn’t get me promoted to Sheriff then I don’t know what will.”
“You haven’t solved anything, and you are a dentist. A dentist doesn’t get promoted to Sheriff,” Miller laughed. “But wedding rings… that’s not a bad idea. He had a passport and two tickets to Australia with him, he was killed and had an empty jewelry box. Was he planning to run off with someone and get married?”
“You can get married here though right?” Kate said. “I mean, Australia is obviously way better. I have been here for a few hours and seen zero kangaroos.”
“Koalas? Nope. Big opera houses? Not one. I’d run off to Australia if I could,” Effie muttered.
“It was risky though,” I added. “Honey, you said yourself that even trying to get off the island now is frowned upon, so to do it back when Robert was alive must have been—”
“Almost impossible,” Honey interrupted. “It wasn’t just a case of people judging you, I heard that people used to get into fights just for mentioning leaving Hallow Haven.”
“You think he was killed because he was leaving?” I asked.
“The station said that he had one set of tickets, no return flight. They’ve been in touch with the airline, but they don’t have records going that far back,” Millers said. “It looks like he wasn’t planning to come back to Green Holt.”
“That could be motive,” Honey nodded. “But if he had two plane tickets then it means he was taking someone with him. Was there a name on the tickets?”
“No,” Miller said.
He was running away with somebody from Hallow Haven, so where was the other person? Where was the person he was planning to marry? I was twisting the ring around my finger and closed my eyes, trying to think about what Honey had told us. Jeff would probably know who Robert was going to Australia with, who else had gotten a passport around that time? Luckily, it sounded like Jeff had just arrived.
“Hello?” Brielle called from the hallway.
“Urgh, through here,” Effie scoffed back. I rolled my eyes at her and she smiled. It had felt as if I was another sister to Effie and Kate since I moved to the islands. They were so welcoming to me, so willing to help me with my magic and tease me at every opportunity; just like sisters would. To see them squabbling with their cousin was strange, but families are complicated.
“Good evening everybody!” Jeff called out as he shuffled along the dining room floor.
“Oh, what happened to you?” Honey cooed, wrapping her arms around him. “Let me get you a tea.”
“It looks worse than it feels,” he smiled. His head was beginning to bruise, and he had an expanding galaxy of blue and purpled spreading across his forehead from the wound above his ear. “Besides, I’ve spent all day with this delightful woman,” he pointed to Brielle, “and now I’m having a night away with you fine folks.”
“Any chance you—?” Kate began to ask.
“Yes!” Jeff interrupted. “You know in all my years as a mailman I have never been pestered as much by any one person as I have by you.” Jeff was laughing and Kate stood up excitedly with her hands out. He reached back to open a bag that he had brought with him and handed Kate a parcel that was wrapped tightly in ‘fragile’ tape and covered with a dozen stamps.
“What on earth have you bought now?” Effie laughed.
“It’s a Furby!” Kate screamed as she used her magic to tear through the packaging. She hugged it tight to her body and was squealing like a frightened pig all the while.
“What?” I asked, struggling to believe my eyes.
“I saw an advert for this a year ago and I placed an order immediately, do you know how hard it is to get your hands on one of these bad boys?” Kate said. She was smiling so broadly that I could see every single one of her teeth. I’d never seen her so happy, but I was still confused.
“Wasn’t that the most in demand toy of 1998?” I asked.
“What?” Kate said, lowering the Furby and looking back at me with genuine surprise.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure I got two or three for my birthday one year. I remember dancing with them in the kitchen to a Backstreet Boys song,” I said. I was getting the impression that I’d said the wrong thing.
“You had three of these! What?!” Kate shrieked. “Dang, I didn’t know we were in the presence of royalty you guys.” She gave a small curtsey, replicating Miller’s joke from earlier. “Dude, I’m kidding. I told you a thousand times, Hallow Haven is trapped in the past. We still watch VHS tapes over here. I cannot stress to you how long it took to get this Furby here.”
“Is that why you’ve been running to the door like a dog every time Jeff showed up,” Effie laughed.
“Yes!” Kate yelled. “I have been waiting for a year, do you get that? That is a considerable percentage of my adult life, just drifting on by in a fog waiting for the precious day that my Furby would make it into my arms safely.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” Effie said. “Brielle, tell her that it is in your medical opinion that she has lost her mind.” We all looked to Brielle and Effie in surprise that they might have an interaction. Brielle seemed to be equally taken aback by it.
“I…” Brielle began. “I think that it’s a nice Furby and all, but maybe I think your sister is right.” Effie stood up to high five the doctor and I felt proud of them all for overcoming the weird family tension in order to tease Kate.
“Well, I’m so happy you are having this moment,” I smiled. “But I really need to speak to Jeff.”
“Don’t mind me, I’ve got big plans for this little guy. Come on, Tarot,” Kate grinned. I wanted to point out that when you turn those things on, they announce that they already have a name. It felt like something she should figure out on her own.
“You are calling your Furby Tarot?” Effie asked. “I am truly embarrassed to be related to you… but also I want to play too so I’m coming with you.” The two sisters walked out of the dining room towards the stairs of the guest house, and I could hear the two of them giggling in the distance.
“Okay…” Miller sighed. “The less said about that the better. Jeff, would you care to take a seat here?” Miller pulled out a chair and Jeff shuffled over to sit down.
“I suppose you know everything already,” Jeff said. “You just need me to confirm it.”
“We don’t know all that much,” I admitted.
“We found a dead man with a passport and tickets to Australia,” Miller said. “We have reason to believe that you would have been the one to help get that passport for Robert Barton and for anyone else on Green Holt that had plans to get away.”
“Mmhmm,” Jeff nodded.
“Why were you charging them money?” I asked. “It seems like you were taking advantage of people that were desperate.”
“That’s what you think of me, huh?” Jeff laughed. “I assure you; it is not what it seems.”
“What do y
ou mean?” I said.
“I have been the mailman for Hallow Haven for my entire working life. It is something to be proud of, let me tell you,” Jeff explained. “You saw Kate’s face just now, I helped bring her that joy. Of course I also deliver bills and the occasional call to jury service, but mostly I bring people what they have been waiting for. I hand people love letters, magazines, birthday presents and more! I make myself useful wherever I can, and on Green Holt and Skerry the thing that I can do to help people the most is to help them organize passport documents.”
“Someone says they want to get a passport, then what?” Miller asked.
“Then I get the correct papers from the post office and deliver them. I wait until they are filled out, take the payment and then deliver the paperwork back to the post office. Within a week or so I am usually delivering a passport into the hands of somebody that has a huge smile on their face!”
“Right… then what are you doing with the cash that they give you?” I pressed.
“Well, it covers the fees of the documents, and the rest…” he paused. “I need to know that I am safe here. Sadie, can you promise me that?”
“Safe from what?” Miller interrupted.
“I am being blackmailed and have been for many years, the rest of the cash is taken straight out of my hands. I have to leave the cash in an envelope in a specified place every month. I never see who collects it, but if I don’t do it then…” Jeff looked out of the window to the night air, and I could sense that he was afraid.
This all just got a whole lot stranger.
13
Miller had made so many notes that his hand had started to cramp. He kept putting the pen down and massaging his palm to try and relieve the pain. Jeff had been forthcoming with information, even details that seemed unrelated were spoken about. I just wanted to sit and listen, hoping something would stand out and we would know where to go from there.
“Natalie Scott was Robert’s girlfriend,” Miller repeated, “and you got her a passport at the same time as Robert got his?”